DeWine said he's considering reopening state office in D.C.

Monday

Feb 25, 2019 at 7:30 AM

WASHINGTON — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is considering opening a Washington, D.C. office, a move that would reverse his predecessor's decision to shutter such an office.

DeWine, in Washington for his first National Governors Association meeting since taking office last month, said Sunday that his staff is consulting with congressional offices to determine how useful it would be to reopen the D.C. office.

John Kasich closed it when he became governor, but before that, Gov. Ted Strickland and his predecessors had kept an office not far from the U.S. Capitol staffed with people responsible for tracking federal issues.

“It’s not just how we tie into congressional offices, but how we tie into the administration with different departments, agencies, so these are things we’re looking at, trying to figure out exactly how to do it," DeWine said, saying a D.C. office would track more routine federal matters, such as grants and other dollars that the state can compete for, as well as larger agenda items.

He said the office would be selective in what it lobbies for.

“I think when you have an opinion about everything, I’m not sure anybody listens to you. You’ll find we’ll be fairly judicious in the contacts we have as far as issues.”

Many of the conversations, he said, will remain private. For example, DeWine again refused Sunday to comment on President Donald Trump’s national-emergency declaration, a move that could draw federal dollars away from a handful of military construction projects in the state. “I’m not going to weigh in publicly on that,” he said.

DeWine also defended himself against criticism by 2018 election opponent Richard Cordray that he had broken a promise when he proposed a gas-tax increase of 18 cents a gallon to pay for crumbling roads and bridges. DeWine said he announced during the campaign that he planned to put together a commission to receive input on how to pay for state infrastructure and vowed to consider their recommendations.

“That’s what I said during the campaign, and I think what I’ve done is consistent,” he said.

He acknowledged that raising the gas tax “is not something that anyone wants to do,” but he said the gravity of the problem necessitated his proposal.

“I’m not going to go borrow more money,” he said. “We’re already paying $390 million more a year just to service the debt on projects that are gone. The credit cards are maxed out.”

He said that while federal infrastructure legislation “would be welcome,” “it’s not going to eliminate the hole that we’re in.”

“I take the world as I find it,” he said. “I can’t wish that something else would’ve happened five years ago or 10 years ago, either in Ohio or at the federal level. Governors deal with the world, and we deal with the reality of what we find. If I don’t deal with Ohio’s infrastructure problems, people are going to look at those roads and see where we are two years from now and four years from now, and they are going to be understandably and correctly furious that we didn’t do anything, that we didn’t take the action that we needed to take.”

jwehrman@dispatch.com

@jessicawehrman

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